Known as a conventional glass fusing method in the above-mentioned technical field is one comprising burning a glass layer containing a laser-absorbing pigment onto one glass member along a region to be fused, then overlaying the other glass member on the former glass member such that the glass layer is interposed therebetween, and irradiating the region to be fused therealong with a laser beam, so as to fuse one glass member and the other glass member together.
Meanwhile, a typical technique for burning a glass layer onto a glass member is one removing an organic solvent and a binder from a paste layer containing a glass frit, a laser-absorbing pigment, the organic solvent and the binder, so as to fix the glass layer firmly to the glass member; and then heating the glass member having the glass layer firmly attached thereto in a firing furnace, so as to melt the glass layer, thereby burning the glass layer onto the glass member (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).
On the other hand, proposed from the viewpoint of suppressing the increase in energy consumption and burning time caused by the use of the firing furnace (i.e., the viewpoint of higher efficiency) is a technique which irradiates a glass layer firmly attached to a glass member with a laser beam, so as to melt the glass layer, thereby burning the glass layer onto the glass member (see, for example, Patent Literature 2).